The Outsiders

Been struggling to pick up beers from "1001 Beers..." recently for various reasons (might need to do a wee online order soon) but I have been picking up other new beers from outside the list to try! Here's a quick run through of the latest outsiders...

130. Weird Beard Hit the Lights
Style: IPA, ABV: 5.8%, Purchased: Gap Wines
Description: Copper colour, hazy,  small white head. Light tropical hop smell, a little malt. Taste to follow, plus grapefruit bitterness. A little earthy. Light boded though a slightly slick mouth feel.
Thoughts: Didn't do much for me (though it's not bad) more bitter than citrus. I wouldn't turn it down but I wouldn't seek it out either.
Score: 5.5





131. Weird Beard Hit the Fairy Lights
Style: APA, ABV: 4.8%, Purchased: Gap Wines
Description: Hazy and light amber. Small white head that dissipated quickly. Floral hop and a little biscuity malt in aroma. Similar taste, with a little orange bitterness to it. Moderate bitterness overall, light to medium body.
Thoughts: Brewed with oranges and star anise apparently. Got the orange but not the star anise. Again didn't do much for me, though it is drinkable. Weird Beard haven't blown me away so far...
Score: 5.5

132. William's Brothers Good Times
Style: Golden Ale, ABV: 5%. Purchased: The Vineyard
Description: Light straw colour. Decent white head. Smells light and a little flowery (brewed with elderflowers apparently). Refreshing and light drinking, a little hops and a little sweetness. Light bodied, decent fizz.
Thoughts:This reminded me a bit of a helles - light and fairly quaffable, would go down a treat at a BBQ. 
Score: 6.5

133. Ilkley Pale
Style: Pale Ale, ABV: 4.2%. Purchased: Lighthouse Wines
Description: Straw coloured and clear. Small white head. Not much aroma, some citrus. Light. Easy drinking. A little sticky. A little bitterness. 
Thoughts: Grand - but nothing I'd go out of my way to get - was expecting more umph from the Nelson Sauvin Hops!
Score: 6

134. Ilkey The Mayan
Style: Stout, ABV: 6.5%. Purchased: Lighthouse Wines
Description: Black with a decent tan head. Aroma is huge choc. Tastes of powdered hot choc (perfectly called by Darren at LightHouse Wines) rather than the good bitter dark choc I was expecting. Chilli brings heat on he finish. Thinner than I was expecting.
Thoughts: Probably the most interesting beer on this list, and the one I'd say to try out of them all. It kinda has all the elements, but just hasn't been balanced and evened out. I could take darker, more bitter chocolate, and less chilli heat.
Score: 6.5

I also picked up a bottle of Brooklyn Black Ops from Lighthouse wines, not cheap but i'm saving it for a special occasion (one beyond the fact that it's a Friday night).

Cheers

Refilling the beer box

The beer box was starting to look empty, fortunately a credit card cock-up left me in credit on my flexible friend! Well, I know how to make use of spare money... and fruitful trips to The Vineyard and Lighthouse Wines this week have helped build the collection up again! So, more new beers coming to a blog near you soon... but first a run down of a few recent tastings!

New Beers from the Lighthouse

Beer 183 from “1001 Beers...”

• Brugse Zot. Style: Belgian Ale. ABV: 6%. Purchased: The Vineyard

  

  Check out the head on that...

  Description: Light amber and slightly hazy. Might have been my crap pouring but this thing came out with a HUGE white head. I really didn't get too much aroma, some yeast and a bit of spice but nothing too strong. A bit of a tangy taste, some malt, some spice. Really fizzy, light to mid bodied, chalky finish.
  Thoughts: Another that might have been killed by expectations... I found this a wee bit all over the place, nothing very coherent. And nothing worth returning for – one of those beers I'm not sure why it made the list, but we all have different tastes!
  Score: 5.5

Beer 184 from “1001 Beers...”

• Thornbridge Kipling. Style: Pale Ale. ABV: 5.2%. Purchased: The Vineyard

Thornbridge Kipling

Description: Strong hazy yellow appearance, decent white head that lasted well. Lots of tropical fruit smells, pineapple and grapefruit. Lots of tropical hops to taste, but not too sweet or bitter – good balance. Light to mid body – coats your mouth slightly.
Thoughts: This is a great pale ale, really drinkable, well balanced. Another triumph for Thornbridge – one I'll definitely buy again
Score: 8

Beer 104 outside the list

• Gonny no brew that. Style: Golden Ale. ABV: 3.8%. Purchased: The Vineyard

Gonny no buy that again



Description: No head, dark yellow, clear. Very hoppy aroma – grapefruit and lemon rind. Again citrus fruit flavours, a little bitterness. Flat, slightly resin like finish.


Thoughts: Not sure I really got this... too flat for me.
Score: 5

Beer 105 outside the list

• Paulaner Oktoberfest. Style: Oktoberfest. ABV: 5.8%. Purchased: The Vineyard

A late Oktoberfest treat



Description: Straw colour, clear, with a good white head. No head, dark yellow, clear. A little bland smell-wise, some grain, not much else. Malty sweetness to taste, not real hops. Fizzy but light bodied.


Thoughts: Pretty middle of the road oktoberfest beer, drinkable but not very exciting.
Score: 6

Cheers

A night out in the big smoke, and a smoky porter

So I had my first night out in Belfast for awhile last weekend, and thoroughly enjoyable it was too. Great to catch up with a few old friends, and I even got to try two new bars!

First up we hit the Hudson. Overall I was very impressed; good selection of beers (Brewdog, Sam Adams on tap and plenty of interesting bottles) and I really enjoyed the hearty food served in the adjoining café – I had chicken and chorizo stew! I didn't take beer notes but I enjoyed the Williams Brothers 7 Giraffes and the taste I had of the Whitewater whiskey barrel aged version of their Clotworth Dobbin. 

Next up was the Sunflower. Another proper pub with a good beer selection (Hilden's Scullions ale on draft, and again quite a few Williams Brothers beers and other interesting things in bottles). 

Really enjoyed both venues and hope to get back out to both soon. If you haven't been to either yet, go check them out – I’m sure you'll not be disappointed.

On top of all that I also got another beer ticked off from the list:

Beer 182 from “1001 Beers...”

• Alaskan Smoked Porter. Style: Smoked porter. ABV: 6.5%. Purchased: Lighthouse Wines

  
  Description: Powered dark brown, with a small but lingering tan head. Strong smoky/woody aroma. A little bit of toasted malt and grain (may be a little milk chocolate) to taste, but mainly its the smoky flavour that comes through. Lighter mouth feel than I expected but that helped with drink-ability.
  Thoughts: Really enjoyed this, perfect for a cold winters night in front of the fire. These beers can easily become “too much”, but actually this was really nicely balanced in taste (i.e. not too smoky) and body (not too heavy). Great stuff.
  Score: 8

Cheers

In the pink...

Thursday Night Beer

I wasn't going to have a beer until the weekend; then work happened. So screw it I opened my fridge to see what was cold and interesting. Step forward beer 165 from the list...

• Roisin. Style: Fruit Beer, ABV: 4.2%.
  
  
  
  Description: Poured rose/pink and hazy. Big pink head that stayed for ages. Strong berry aromas. Not as much fruit on the palette as on the nose. Quite a lot of hops and malt in the taste, despite the fruit content. Bitter-sweet berries. Light mouth feel, but slightly syrupy.
  Thoughts:  I have enjoyed all the Williams Bros Beers have had to date, this was... not bad. A slightly different take on a fruit beer from Belgian examples, given the malts. Personally I prefer a sour finsh on a fruit beer. Being colder might have helped
  Score: 6.5

Update

And dammit one beer became two, this one recommended by Light House Wines and is Beer 65 not from the list

• Maredsous 6. Style: Golden Ale, ABV: 6%.
  
  Description: Poured light golden with a wispy blond head. Grapefruit and sour yeasty/bready aromas. Light fruit flavours, again grapefruit and citrus tastes. Slightly sour finish. Started light body but with decent carbonisation, though it became slightly flat before I finished it.
  Thoughts: Nice solid Belgian blond. This would have been my favourite of the maredsous range if it hadn't been for how flat it went at the end. May that was my fault (badly poured maybe?) but it brought down the score a wee bit. Very refreshing beer though, you'd never guess it was 6%!
  Score: 7

Cheers

A Great Belgian Tripel

Thanks to Twitter (and @belfastbeerblog) I've come across a new outlet to purchase good beers. The lighthouse Bar and Wine Shop in Whiteabbey is within easy reach of Belfast and has a nice selection of English Ales, local Whitewater and Hilden Brews, and a very nice range of American Craftbeers. Seriously worth checking out, from taking to the staff they're keen to get in some new stuff (I'm hoping for some Stone Brewing Beers) and they're also looking to set up and beer/ale tasting club. I'll be going back again and if your in the area please support a local company trying to broaden our horizons. Picture of some of my purchases below!

The good weather has made nearly every evening a beer evening, so a few of the recent samples are set out below:

From “1001 Beers...”

Beer number 158

• Tripel Karmeliet. Style: Belgian Triple. ABV 8.4%
  
  
  Description: Poured from the bottle light golden and slightly cloudy. Went into my Leffe Challis, leaving a large white head which quickly left. Good carbonisation, with lots of fizzy bubble to start – though it calmed down a bit as we went along. Strong fruit and herbal aromas, and then really strong Belgian golden ale smell. Mid mouth-feel – bubbly to start though slightly thicker as it calmed down. Citrus fruit flavours – with a nice sourness (slightly cherry like) on the finish – occasional hoppy bitter hits also keep the beer interesting.
  
  Conclusion: This a a great beer – well balanced, fruit flavours but a sourness that means it doesn't become overwhelming. 8.4% gives a really nice alcohol warming kick – it doesn't taste as strong as it should but you know the alcohol is there. Very refreshing after a long day in a warm office! Big fan of the style and of this beer in particular. I'll be buying this again!
  Score: 8.5.

Others

• Wild Hop. Style: IPA, ABV: 5.2%.
  
  
  
  Description: Amber IPA from Harviestoun with a nice bitter finish.
  Conclusion: A really solid IPA with good hop bitterness combined with a decent malt flavour. Nice UK IPA, but not as bitter as some of the US versions. Very Drinkable though
  Score: 6.5
  
  
• Joker IPA. Style: IPA, ABV: 5%.
  Description: Blond IPA from Williams Brothers, quite light and refreshing with a more floral and citrus flavour.
  Conclusion: This beer was covered recently by the Belfast Beer Blog where it received a very impressive score. I'd tried it before but this review made me want to try it again (in fairness they had it on draft which probably improved the tasting and score!). It was better then I remembered. Another nice UK IPA, a little too sweet for me, and a bit more malts would have balanced the overall flavour better. As a Hophead, I prefer something with a bit more bang for my buck – but this might be a good beer to introduce a lager drinker to IPA. Would buy again.
• Score: 6.5

• Brilliant Ale. Style: Golden Ale, ABV: 5.6%.
  
  
  
  Description: Light blond English ale, with little carbonisation, but kept a good head. A little lager like in taste (may be more bitter than an English lager). Overall quite a light beer.
  Conclusion: This was mentioned by Beers I've Known in their coverage of the the recent Beer Bloggers Conference (another source worth following for beer information). Quite refreshing on a warm summers night, but didn't really impress after the beers that preceded it. Worth a try but not something I’d turn too that often (though it might taste much better from cask).
• Score: 6

So that’s a further 51 Beers from outside “1001 Beers...” tasted and scored! Making progress slowly but surely.

The next post will cover the (mostly American) beers purchased at the Lighthouse.

Cheers